Wine & Spirits - April 2021 - 100

Focus Burgundy
without any sense of sweetness, sustained
by a long limestone buzz of acidity. Layered
with scents of orange zest and pineapple,
butter, acorn and pale stone, it's a complex
wine offering savory satisfaction. § Kobrand,
Purchase, NY
523851

93 | Domaine Ferret

$58

2018 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Perrières Tête de
Cru ^ From a steep, mid-slope vineyard facing south-southeast, the vines planted in the
early 1970s, this is earthy, bold chardonnay
in a Mâconnais dialect. Its quiet, brisk complexity combines light green-apple crunch
and buzzy honey-scented acidity, along with
a darker tone-Berkshire sommelier Michael
Kowalski described it as a grilled-fennel
scent. Those flavors amplify as the wine
opens to pale beauty. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
523848

92 | Domaine Ferret

$76

2018 Pouilly-Fuissé Les Ménétrières HorsClasse ^ This grows at a mid-slope vineyard
in Fuissé where the alluvial silt-and-clay soils
are calcareous without being rocky. In 2018,
the site produced an old-fashioned PouillyFuissé, an outpouring of creamy, buttery
flavors to round the nectarine and yellowapple notes. It's cool, tight and lasting, a wine
that will improve for several years in bottle. §
Kobrand, Purchase, NY

lage of Fuissé was planted in 1956, the site
facing east on calcareous marls. In 2018, the
wine has clean, refreshing notes of sorrel and
lime, wheat and honey. Its acidity adds a gentle electricity to the flavors, pushing back on
the influence of oak and malolactic, needing
bottle age to integrate and fill out more completely. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY

R U L LY
523869

90 | Defaix Frères

$50

2017 Rully 1er Cru Rabource ^ Sweet scents
of baked apples and Mandarin oranges meet
the leesy richness of almond nougat in this
warm, satisfying Rully. It's toasty and complex, a wine for salmon in a creamy mushroom sauce. § Taub Family Selections, Boca
Raton, FL

$24

2018 St-Véran (Best Buy) ^ Scents of lees and
lemon balm give this a quiet simplicity. It's
gentle and grapey, ready to provide lemony
spritz to pan-roasted fish. § HB Wine Merchants, Hartly, DE

B OU RGOGNE
523879

$16

2018 Bourgogne Laforêt Chardonnay
(Best Buy) ^ Springtime comes to Burgundy in
the white flower scents and juicy apple freshness of this chardonnay. Underneath, there
are notes of celery root and minerals. Brisk
and clean, this is ready for salmon rillettes. §
Dreyfus Ashby & Co., NY

A L IGO TE
523863

92 | Maison Chanzy

523845

91 | Domaine Béranger

$44

2019 Pouilly-Fuissé ^ Scents of baked apple
and nut butter add to this wine's richness,
while a limestone buzz of acidity keeps it
tight. The apple-skin flavors open to a cascade of fruit, with orange and tangy tangerine pith at the fore. The fruit is pale, pleasantly bitter, lending the wine a classical
profile. This grows at a 12-acre domaine in
Pouilly, farmed by Emile Béranger for half
a century. The wine is structured to develop
over the next few years in the cellar. § Quintessential, Napa, CA
523850

91 | Domaine Ferret

$58

2018 Pouilly-Fuissé Clos des Prouges Tête
de Cru ^ Most of this five-acre clos in the vil100

WINE & SPIRITS

APRIL 2021

$27

2017 Bouzeron Les Trois ^ A blend from
three parcels of aligoté, the fruit vinified
in stainless steel, this is a wholesome white
with pale, earthy savor and a buzz of tart fruit
acidity. The rich flavor is layered with scents
of white flowers, apple blossoms and meaty
notes of boudin blanc, giving this the feel of
an antique Burgundy. Soul-satisfying aligoté. §
Winebow Imports, NY
523861

91 | Domaine Fernand
et Laurent Pillot

$29

2018 Bouzeron Domaine Gagey (Best Buy) ^
Tight pear scents and notes of white peach
just approaching ripeness introduce this
smoky, brothy aligoté. It tastes like seashells
in its mineral detail, the fruit opening to citrus and targeting the wine at clams on the
half shell. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY

RED
C OTE D'OR
ALOXE-CORTON

91 | Jean-Claude Boisset

523854

88 | Joseph Drouhin

90 | Louis Jadot

524159

ST-VERAN

87 | Les Trois Pêcheurs

cool white wine. Clean and lively, with a leesiness that's fragrant with pear-skin notes, this
is refreshing with raw scallops. § Taub Family
Selections, Boca Raton, FL
524172

$30

2018 Bourgogne Aligoté ^ The Pillots farm
an acre and a quarter of aligoté in Chassagne-Montrachet, providing a different
lens on the village's terroir by fermenting
and aging this wine in tank. It offers fresh
pear and raw almond flavors in a zesty and

$82

2018 Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru Les Valozières ^
This vineyard is tucked below Les Bressandes
on the Corton hill. It offers delicate red fruit
flavors, from strawberry to deeper cherry,
both juicy and tart. There's elegance to the
wine's richness and tension, a lively brightness that several panelists described as taking a natural bent, unfettered by convention. §
Boisset Collection, Napa, CA

BEAUNE
524098

93 | Domaine Chanson

$75

90 | Domaine Chanson

$79

2018 Beaune 1er Cru Bastion ^ Named for
the cellars in which this wine was blended
and aged, this is a blend of fruit from
seven premier cru vineyards in Chanson's
domaine-Clos du Roi, Clos des Marconnets, Bressandes, Teurons, Champimonts,
Clos des Mouches and the monopole Clos
des Fèves. The blending played into the
sunny generosity of the 2018 vintage, creating a wine that layers savory notes of a bouquet garni, tomato leaves and rose petals,
hibiscus and sweet red currants. It's open
and accessible, spreading out to the horizon
in a long sensation of flavor. If you plan to
drink 2018s for their youthful glories, this is
a great buy. § Vintus, NY
524095
2018 Beaune 1er Cru Domaine Clos des
Marconnets ^ Chanson owns ten acres of
this premier cru at the northern reaches
of Beaune, producing this sleek wine with
black-cherry and blackberry richness. There's
detail in the tannins, though for now that
detail is mostly driven by spicy oak. Cellar
it. § Vintus, NY
524093
https://www.quintessentialwines.com/Georges-Duboeuf-Domaine-Beranger-Pouilly-Fuisse
Wine & Spirits - April 2021

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